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Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus

The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights

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Here the backdrop of contemporary California becomes fertile ground for Kellerman's riveting tales of murder, mystery, and family ties most sinister and deadly.... Among the first-rate short mysteries in this collection, the brand-new "Garden of Eden" and "Open House" feature the famous sleuthing duo Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. "Bull's-Eye" introduced Cindy Decker to the crime-fiction world, and "Mr. Barton's Head Case" appears here for the very first time in English. In addition, two rare personal essays allow readers glimpses into Kellerman's private life, revealing her true grit in "Small Miracles" and childhood memories of working in her father's deli in the exquisite "Summer of My Womanhood." Compiled at last in one volume, the seventeen pieces in this book feature new introductions by the author and contribute to a unique, compelling portrait of one of America's top masters of suspense. A must-have collection for all mystery fans, The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights showcases how ordinary everyday experiences can be the genesis of extraordinary tales that unveil the darkest sins and secrets of the human heart.

324 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

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About the author

Faye Kellerman

179 books2,022 followers
Faye Kellerman was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in Sherman Oaks, California. She earned a BA in mathematics and a doctorate in dentistry at UCLA., and conducted research in oral biology. Kellerman's groundbreaking first novel, THE RITUAL BATH, was published in 1986 to wide critical and commercial acclaim. The winner of the Macavity Award for the Best First Novel from the Mystery Readers of American, THE RITUAL BATH introduced readers to Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus, termed by People Magazine "Hands down, the most refreshing mystery couple around." The New York Times enthused, "This couple's domestic affairs have the haimish warmth of reality, unlike the formulaic lives of so many other genre detectives."

There are well over twenty million copies of Faye Kellerman's novels in print internationally. The Decker/Lazarus thrillers include SACRED AND PROFANE; MILK AND HONEY; DAY OF ATONEMENT; FALSE PROPHET; GRIEVOUS SIN; SANCTUARY; as well as her New York Times Bestsellers, JUSTICE, PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD - listed by the LA Times as one of the best crime novel of 2001; SERPENT'S TOOTH; JUPITER'S BONES, THE FORGOTTEN, STONE KISS, STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS, THE BURNT HOUSE, THE MERCEDES COFFIN and BLINDMAN'S BLUFF. . The novels, STALKER and STREET DREAMS, introduced Kellerman's newest protagonist, Police Officer Cindy Decker. In addition to her crime series, Kellerman is also the author of New York Time's bestseller MOON MUSIC, a suspense horror novel set in Las Vegas featuring Detective Romulus Poe, as well as an historical novel of intrigue set in Elizabethan England, THE QUALITY OF MERCY. She has also co-authored the New York Times Bestseller DOUBLE HOMICIDE, with her husband and partner in crime, Jonathan Kellerman. She has also written a young adult novel, PRISM, with her daughter, Aliza Kellerman

Faye Kellerman's highly praised short stories and reviews have been anthologized in numerous collections including two volumes of the notable SISTERS IN CRIME SERIES, Sara Paretsky's, A WOMAN'S EYE; THE FIRST ANNUAL YEAR'S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES; THE THIRD ANNUAL BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR; WOMEN OF MYSTERY AND DEADLY ALLIES 11. Her personally annotated collection of her award winning stories, THE GARDEN OF EDEN and OTHER CRIMINAL DELIGHTS, was published in August of 2006. H
Her other hobbies include gardening, sewing and jogging if her back doesn't give out. She is the proud mother of four children, and her eldest son, Jesse, has just published his fourth novel, THE EXECUTOR, from Putnam. She lives in Los Angeles and Santa Fe with her husband, Jonathan, their youngest child, and their French Bulldog, Hugo.

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5 stars
340 (27%)
4 stars
343 (27%)
3 stars
387 (31%)
2 stars
141 (11%)
1 star
37 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
Profile Image for Brina.
1,239 reviews4 followers
January 19, 2018
I have long viewed mysteries as the palette cleansers that I read in between denser reads. With the winter doldrums upon me, I notice that I have been reading more mysteries and action novels than usual in order to perk up my mood. One of my go to mystery writers is best selling author Faye Kellerman. Her Decker and Lazarus series is a comfort read to me so much so that I have finished the series and am impatiently waiting for Kellerman's next installment. As I browsed through Kellerman's list of published books, I noticed a book of mystery short stories featuring Decker and Lazarus as well as other original material. I decided to select this collection to help me through yet another dreary winter day.

Kellerman starts her collection with three stories featuring her sleuthing bread and butter Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus as well as a story that first introduces Cindy Decker as a police officer. In The Garden of Eden, Rina befriends an older woman named Cecily Eden who shares her hobby of horticulture. When Ms. Eden dies of an apparent heart attack on a day when Rina was supposed to visit her, she notices something amiss in Ms. Eden's bedroom and encourages her husband Lieutenant Decker to investigate. In Open House, a body is discovered in a home being shown to prospective buyers and Decker and his team of detectives are called on the case. As with Kellerman's full length novels featuring the sleuthing duo, Rina features prominently in solving the cases. Because each story averages twenty five pages in length, Kellerman announces whodunit relatively quickly, albeit with many twists toward the end to keep her readers alert. This is the case with Bull's-eye, which reveals Cindy in police academy. Her universally disliked instructor is tragically murdered at a shooting range, and Cindy finds something off in the circumstances. Reluctantly enlisting her father's help in solving the case, Decker and Decker team up, setting the stage for cases featuring Cindy later in the series. As I enjoy Cindy as a character as she has developed, I especially enjoyed this story with her as the lead protagonist.

The second set of stories are stand alone work by Kellerman. I found Bonding to be creepy and chilling, and Kellerman admits that this is a departure from her usual work. Discards introduces PI Andrea Darling to the Malibu crime scene, and I grew to like her personality, and read through this story slowly with my knowledge that Kellerman does not revisit her in later work. In this piece, Kellerman weaves dual story lines of the death of Malibu Mike, a beloved homeless man who is a Malibu institution, and the disappearance of Martina Cruz, a reliable caretaker for octogenarian Deidre Pollack. As Kellerman's bread and butter stories generally feature Decker as her lead cop and sleuth, it was refreshing to see how Kellerman developed a female investigator's sleuthing skills. As with her more prominent series, she did not disappoint here.

The last five stories in the collection speak of Kellerman's family life and how being an orthodox Jew has influenced her writing. I have noted many times that had the Deckers been actual people, I would have loved to invited them to my home for a holiday or Sabbath meal. Sharing a similar lifestyle, the series speaks to me on a personal level. In Holy Water, Kellerman discusses a rabbi's ethical dilemma as a kosher certifier and how he can appease competing business interests without revealing any corporate secrets. The story takes place on Purim, and, as with the biblical holiday, a small miracle occurs releasing the rabbi from the predicament he finds himself in. I especially enjoyed Luck of the Draw, which Kellerman wrote with her two daughters when they were teenagers, and Small Miracles that showed the length that Kellerman would go to protect both her mother and children. She finishes the collection with a personal essay, The Summer of My Womanhood, which talks of her summer working in her father's deli and bakery when she turned eleven. I thought that this piece was touching and encouraging that Kellerman could branch out from her usual genre, perhaps opening the door for a memoir or essay collection in the future.

While not as much of a comfort read as a full length novel featuring Decker and Lazarus, I enjoyed the stories in The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights. Full of twists that made whodunit more intriguing as well as personal stories away from Kellerman's usual genre, this story collection was an enjoyable way to spend an otherwise gloomy January day. Kellerman says that she will have a full length novel featuring the Decker family ready later this year. I am eagerly awaiting its publication, but, in the meantime, I am more willing than before to read Kellerman's stand alone work as I see that she writes well developed, intriguing stories in more than one genre.

3.5 stars
Profile Image for Mandy Tanksley.
53 reviews
April 19, 2014
I've read a few short stories collections over the years and have never really enjoyed them as a whole. I usually find myself picking out a tale or two that I enjoyed and wonder why the other stories couldn't have been as good. With Faye Kellerman's collection Garden of Eden, I didn't find myself doing that. In fact, I kept asking myself why I was still reading it. It's not that she isn't a good writer (certainly not the best) or that her stories weren't interesting (some were), but it just didn't work for me. I didn't find the mysteries and murders appealing. Some stories felt rushed. Others were simply bland. The final four writings didn't fit with the theme of the book which was okay. I couldn't get into them either. I wouldn't recommend this collection unless you're looking for something different and not too complicated.
254 reviews
November 17, 2013
Maybe this is what happens when you are a well-published author of mysteries and need money to send a kid off to college or buy a vacation house at the beach – you round up all your odds and sods of writings you started and never made into books, and publish them as a ‘collection’ of short pieces, described on the cover as “an extraordinary anthology of her best short writing.” Good for two nights of escape reading but not much else – some didn’t even rise to the level of stories but just snippets.
926 reviews1 follower
November 24, 2023
I am not a big fan of the short story. Like other collections this book had some decent stories and some that weren't so great. The ration of not-so-great to readable was too high for my taste. The stories at the end of this book were actually recounting of event in her own life, not mysteries at all. Faye Kellerman is kind of a light weight in the set of series mystery writers whose work I follow. I have read most of her books but I don't look forward to the next one or preorder it as I do with some other authors (e.g. John Sandford, Michael Connolly, Jonathon Kellerman). If you are a completist for this author go ahead and read it. Otherwise don't bother.
Profile Image for Jenn.
738 reviews42 followers
October 8, 2018
As I was reading this book there were some stories that I really enjoyed the mystery aspect and some others I really didn’t like. Take for instance the story of the old man getting a pit bull and naming him man eater, I didn’t care for that story at all. The one of the mule and a mob boss hiring a hit man to knock off a fed, that one had me laughing especially when his car and gun both started talking to him!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
2,102 reviews38 followers
August 24, 2020
A collection of short stories some funny... some bizarre... some involving murder... some about family...
1. The Garden of Eden ~ this explains how Rina had inherited a number of paintings that mostly took care of the Deckers' travels and vacations to not too shabby places.
2. Open House ~ the naked body of a Hispanic woman was found at a closet at an empty house for sale.
3. Bull's Eye ~ an episode at a firing range during Cindy Decker's Police Academy training.
4. A Woman of Mystery ~ One of Rina's students in her "Introduction to Judaism" class seemed to have no past, though well~versed in Bible knowledge especially Genesis, Exodus and the Prophets... she was unfamiliar with Jewish customs... and in trying to help her, both Deckers uncovered her grandmother's past... all the way to Ravensbrück, a women's labor camp in Germany.
5. The Stalker ~ poetic justice... killing 2 birds with one stone to free a woman from perpetual terror and harassment.
6. Mummy and Jack ~ my guess is, he strangled her to bring out a smile and a bit of tongue and teeth for good measure... there was no blood on his clothes when he came back home after walking the unsmiling guest out.
7. Bonding ~ Dark and nauseatingly disgusting owing to the well~crafted first person POV for the mixed atmosphere of baseness ~ 'incest' and murder... both forbidden.
8. Discards ~ Maria was a good friend and employee... unfortunately, such could not be said about her husband and his brothers.
9. Tendrils of Love ~ anonymity in chat rooms offers a lot of possibility including murder. But a 'name' is a good way to start.
10. Malibu Dog ~ a quote from one witness... "First time I've ever seen a dog protect his master to death."
11. The Back Page ~ dental fillings and radio waves... an urban legend set BC ~ Before Computers.
12. Mr. Barton's Head Case ~ a mob hitman's relationship with his car and his sniper's rifle who both 'talked' him out of killing a Fed.
13. Holy Water ~ I really liked this one... about the Cola Wars. Rabbi Feinermann once substituted for Cola Gold's usual Rabbi tester for the drink's "kosherity" ergo he had knowledge of the formula... thus, his kidnapping. Funny... smart and entertaining. Also, he reminded me of Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small and his Art of the Pil Pul.
The rest were about real relatable and heart~warming family interactions and one was about the author's teen~age years working at her father's bakery.
Profile Image for Jen.
3,474 reviews27 followers
February 9, 2012
Meh, it was ok. I guess I'm just tired of reading about adultery and murder (usually due to the adultery), so I wasn't that into it. Not bad, but it doesn't inspire me to read more by this author. I am going to try her "Burnt House" though. That does look good, but I will wait to read it when I'm more in the mood for a wily killer and the even wilier detective tracking the killer down.
Profile Image for alice Tileston.
738 reviews5 followers
December 10, 2016
I don't normally read short stories...
now I remember why. the only one in here worth reading had reins and Peter decker in it. the others are forgettable. ....
Profile Image for Jerry B.
1,489 reviews151 followers
November 7, 2017
We’ll admit to enjoying the short-story medium fairly regularly; and have read many an anthology by such notable authors as JD Robb, Lee Child, Stephen King, and (to us, the master) Jeffery Deaver. Unfortunately, Faye Kellerman quickly reveals in this 17-tale compendium that this is for sure not her forte. Most all the entries had previously been published in assorted magazines or the like, mostly ones not well known. Written during the 90’s, when her popular Rina Lazarus/Peter Decker series was into half a dozen or so full-length novels and gaining steam, no doubt her name recognition was the main motivation for promoting these brief stories.

While billed as mysteries, and a couple do feature Rina and Peter, most are dull and uninteresting. Several near the end are family oriented autobiographical snippets that have nothing to do with criminals! In a short story, one usually has to reward the reader for the lack of character development and plot complexity with some sort of pizzazz – a snappy ending or an unexpected happening that at least tries to create a little “wow” effect. But of the 17, that happened a mere once or twice, to be generous. Not good. {1.5}
Profile Image for Melissa.
1,152 reviews1 follower
August 2, 2018
An anthology of short stories by Faye Kellerman with occasional entries co-written by other family members. Some of the stories were Decker/Lazarus and written specifically for this anthology. Most other stories were published in anthologies or magazines. In fact I remember reading one from another Jewish mystery writer anthology. There were a couple non-mystery/autobiographical family shorts. All in all I would recommend.
Profile Image for Jean Boobar.
262 reviews2 followers
February 19, 2019
This book is a compilation of stories written by mystery author Faye Kellerman. Some of the stories are written for this volume, others were written as exercises, and others were about her family. As a sampler, Kellerman provided lots of diverse styles and themes and I quickly recognized that I much prefer the family oriented themes over the dark and violent themes that I am more familiar with.
An interesting read. My rating reflects my taste more than her writing
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
12 reviews
February 14, 2023
Wonderful Faye Kellerman until she decided to be different

Wonderful stories, until she decided to depart from her usual and write "family" stories at the end. I only managed to suffer part way through the second one and decided not to finish the book. Stick to mysteries and satire, Faye. Leave the voice of whiney adolescents to someone else and treacle tales,the the Hallmark channel
Profile Image for Robin.
914 reviews
March 3, 2023
I have long been a fan of Faye Kellerman's Rina Lazarus and Peter Decker mysteries. So I read the three short stories in this volume that feature them and Peter's daughter Cindy, along with a mystery with a Rabbi at the center ("Holy Water") and "The Luck of the Draw" written with Kellerman's daughters when they were the age of the two young narrators, 11 and 15. Some of the others might be good but I cannot vouch for them.
390 reviews
August 2, 2018
I normally do not bother with short story books. I find you just get into the story and they end. I must admit I enjoyed this group of tales and there was only one that was left up in the air and begs for the tale to be a full novel - A Woman of Mystery - please, please, if you haven't already done so Ms. Kellerman, make this a full length novel. Thank you.
Profile Image for Jana B..
100 reviews3 followers
July 18, 2017
Had some hits, had some misses. Overall enjoyable.
1,556 reviews
September 20, 2017
The is a delightful collection of short stories. Some are about the Deckers. My favorite was "The Stalker."
Profile Image for Miranda.
4 reviews2 followers
March 6, 2018
Some of the stories were great, but some of them were very poor, not up to Faye Kellerman's usual standard. By the end I was reading just to complete the book, but not enthralled at all.
620 reviews4 followers
January 18, 2020
A series of short stories by Kellerman and her friends and relations in some cases. Forgettable!
Profile Image for Donna.
825 reviews4 followers
July 22, 2020
Faye Kellerman writes 14 short stories about crime and other mysteries. A few of them have Peter Decker and family
Profile Image for Cybercrone.
2,104 reviews18 followers
February 7, 2022
Kellerman does a good short story, and I enjoyed all of these.
Profile Image for Ellen Spes.
1,089 reviews7 followers
April 26, 2022
Short stories. Not my favorite. Missing too many rich details.
521 reviews3 followers
July 3, 2022
Amusing. Short stories with mostly interesting mysteries embedded with some humor. Perfect read if you don't want to think too much and just want a quick, relaxing diversion.
137 reviews
January 5, 2023
Mixed assortment of Kellerman stories. The first few stories are solid Pete and Rina mysteries. The remaining stories became increasingly disappointing as the book progressed.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews

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